No summary available.
Has executed all of CB's commissions. Hopes to meet Charles Shadwell when in town. Is in the throes of exams. Thinking of taking up mathematics. Relates further chemical experiments.
Finds no experimental evidence connecting index of capillary action to index of refraction.
Sends catalogue of plants [possibly "Catalogus Horti. Regii. Botanici. Landishuthi Bojurum 1810"], offers to send any plants Smith desires.
No summary available.
Invites Smith and his wife to stay next week whilst [Aylmer Bourke] Lambert and Mrs Lochee are also visiting.
Unable to visit as they are expecting [William] Roscoe, who is to visit Holkham, [Norfolk, home of Thomas William Coke] with them, and Smith must be in Norwich on 29 November as steward of the first ball. Intends to write to Dr [George] Thackery, new vice-chancellor of Cambridge, regarding garden and lectureship, which if he gains he will enter the university and if not remain as he is, as advised the Bishop of Bristol [William Mansel]. The Dean [of Norwich, Joseph Turner (1747-1828)] says that the university cannot avoid offering the professorship to Smith and if they do he should be offered an MA without entering. Invites the Cullums, [Aylmer Bourke] Lambert and Mrs Lochee to them instead. Dr Davy dying of a cancerous disorder in the mouth at Dr Tuthill's, Soho Square, a great loss.
In postscript addressed to Lambert invites him and Mrs Lochee to Norwich whilst Roscoe is staying; they cannot alter their day of going to Holkham as they are engaged to meet the Duke of Gloucester [Prince William (1776-1834), chancellor of Cambridge University], with whom Roscoe is well acquainted.
Violent headache compelled [Aylmer Bourke] Lambert to cancel his visit to Bury at the last moment. Approves of the advice given to Smith regarding Cambridge botany professorship and garden. Grieved by Smith's account of Dr [Martin] Davy's mortal illness and recalls others who have died or are dying from cancers of the mouth.
No summary available.
Having spent last 17 of 18 springs in London he "received high gratification" from spending the last one in the country. His son has developed an interest in botany. Intercedes for [William] Travis [(1771-1851)] of Scarborough, who regrets no longer being a FLS and claims to have been struck out by a friend's blunder and is prepared to pay his arrears, vouches for him as "indefatigable in seeking improvement in his medical profession [...] and attends to every branch of natural history" and [James] Sowerby knows him as "a zealous naturalist".
His son bought a book on mineralogy by Aiken, dislikes it much and wishes there was a good manual on it. The Downton and Grange pippins of his new Herefordshire apple trees bore fruit this year; some fruit cracked, as did many of his pears. Foxley crab and Golden Harvey had fine blossom but no fruit. Siberian crab "took beautifully" on espaliers. Has started wearing flannel next to his skin as his son has done so for several years and he does not remember when he last had a cold.
Thanking him for the paper on analysis. Has been to see Sir Joseph Banks. Hopes to see JH soon.
Unable to accept Smith's invitation to enjoy "the feast of reason and the flour of the soul" which presence of [William Roscoe] promises. Sends game.
Looking forward to visit of Smith and [William] Roscoe from Holkham, [Norfolk, home of Thomas William Coke] to Narford. Thanks for ticket to the Norwich Ball.
No summary available.
No summary available.
Thanks for £31 for George Don's family, visited them in Forfar with [Robert] Brown [(c 1767-1845)] of the Perth nurseries, comments on the opposing characteristics of Don's two grown up sons: the elder, [George Don (1798-1856)], is "senseless, stubborn, unfeeling", whilst the younger, [David Don (1799-1841)], is "pliable, full of attachment [...], and really clever". "The Committee" failed to convince the eldest to "carry on the garden", fears it will be abandoned and that the son will go into the army, navy, or worse. Will try and get the younger son attached to a nursery or into Kew. Congratulates Smith on completion of "English Botany". Maughan has proved 'Solidago lanceolata' as indigenous, still has his own doubts. Results of an experiment for growing 'Fucus esculentus' at Car Rock. A "curious fact in vegetable physiology" concerning yellow leaved ash seedlings "inoculated by the insertion of [a] diseased bud". Neill's opinion of "Life and Death of a Monkey [or the Village of Alton: a tale for young persons" an anonymous work by "A Lady" published in London in 1814].
No summary available.
Reports on letters received from Mrs [Catherine] Lambert concerning [Aylmer Bourke] Lambert's ill health, including violent headaches and insomnia. Cornwallis Hewett to succeed as Downing Professor of Medicine following death of Professor [Busick] Harwood [(1750-1814), anatomist], although uncertain who will succeed to astronomical professorship, believes Hewett's father exhibited his collection of gold, topazes and amethysts to Smith at Cullum's lodgings in King Street, Covent Garden, [London]. Invites [William] Roscoe to call on him should he return from his Norfolk tour via Bury.
No summary available.
Sent letter relating to Mrs Stoddart, to Mr Lynn [Goodenough's son-in-law], in reference to irregularities in the management and claiming of dues of the manor of Kirkland, Cumberland. His knowledge of the business: as the Minister of Caldbeck, the de facto lord of the manor, has had no regular residence the rights of the manor have not been kept up, and so by Cumberland law deemed to be obsolete. Subsequently, the tenants have been conveying their estates without paying the customary dues and fees, which Mr Lynn now intends to claim as lord of the manor.
[Thomas] Marsham about to move from Baker Street to a house in Winchmore Hill which was lately occupied by Marsham's son, William, and mistress. Goodenough shocked to hear that Marsham and his wife visited them on many occassions; "how the revolutionary confusions of sound morality spread". [Aylmer Bourke] Lambert at his brother-in-law's house in the country recovering from a "great irritation" caused by overexcitement and exhaustion during a visit by [Aimé] Bonpland [(1773-1858)].